SET at highest level in more than 6 years

BANGKOK: The Stock Exchange of Thailand index closed at an 80-month high yesterday, breaking through the 700-point barrier with broad-based buying by investors bullish on economic prospects for next year.

The SET index closed at 700.93 points, up 13.05 points, on heavy trading worth 48.91 billion baht.

Overall, the SET index had gained over 80% for the year to date, one of the best performing markets in the region.

Analysts said with this year's growth projected at 6.3%, rising to up to 8% next year, share prices are expected to continue to rise on expectations of stronger corporate profits.

Leading trade was iTV shares, which gained 5.2 baht to close at 26 baht. A unit of telecom giant Shin Corp, owned by the family of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the firm has announced plans to sell a 20% stake for 3 billion baht to two new partners.

--The Post 2003-12-19

THE GUY KNOWS HOW TO PREOCCUPY THAI PEOPLE AND THE COUNTRY .......

leader with strategies but no character

........ such a sad thing when we live in a land that money can buy EVERYTHING

........ such a sad thing when we live in a land that money can buy EVERYTHING

seems to me that money can buy you everything in any land....

I am fast re-evaluating my view of Jooplo.

Got an interesting story from our broker in Bangkok. It seems that some Thai politicians in the government had to declare more than 2 Billions Bath in profit (yes that's 2 Billions) they made in the SET in this year alone. The funny thing is that the stock they made money on (their porftolio had 2 or 3 stocks, so much for diversification) were the famous stock being manipulated recently on the SET that brought the attention of the Thai SEC. Funny how quickly those probe and investigation of the SEC got burried after the scandal was out 2 or 3 months ago.

I guess some people are more equal than others when it comes to dealing with the Toxin government

My porftolio is not moving much despite the speculation boom of the last few months. It seems that only the "speculative" and "manipulated" stocks are the ones making it big on the SET. Since those stocks are overvalued and very active, the "value" companies are being ignored and are not gaining from the SET recent gains. This is bad.

Obviously, the SET index is badly "balanced" to reflect such gains that come only from a few "insider" stocks. Those impact shouldn't be so significant in a "real" index.

I catched some good stocks in beginning of 2003, and made a nice profit. Bought for 160K THB, now it's neary 300K. Think the tax will be 15%, not sure.

I catched some good stocks in beginning of 2003, and made a nice profit. Bought for 160K THB, now it's neary 300K. Think the tax will be 15%, not sure.

No, no tax on capital agains for farangs unless you also happen to live in Thailand and work there.

However, dividends are taxed but sometimes special BOI provisions give you tax free dividends in some companies.

I think the gains are gone for the next 6 months. I had a few 200% and 300% gain on some stocks but my "value" holdings are flat despite the high dividend (10%)